David Carney believes Sydney FC can still win the A-League, backing the playing group to get the job done at the tail end of the season.
The Sky Blues find themselves in the bottom four for the first time this campaign, but only one point adrift of the six frontrunners.
And as the team draw a line under the first 22 fixtures and focus on the final five, Carney sees the glass as half full.
The 32-year-old former Socceroo said a win over Wellington at Allianz Stadium on Saturday would provide the jump-start needed to ensure their campaign doesn’t end with the home-and-away campaign.
“We definitely need results, but what’s done is done,” Carney said.
“The performances have been good, so there’s still a lot of positive with the players.
“Everyone backs everyone. We can beat anyone … we’ve got a good enough squad to still win it.
“So we’re not nervous, but we’ve just got to make sure we start delivering and take it game by game.
“We’ve got five games left, and like Graham Arnold said it’s a mini-tournament for us now.
“We’ve got to make sure we win on Saturday and kick on from there.”
After Wellington, Sydney play Central Coast before tough matches against Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.
On paper the Phoenix and Mariners – the league’s bottom two sides – appear to be the must-win contests of the five.
However, coach Graham Arnold saw it a different way.
“It’s the so-called easier teams that we’re not performing great against,” he said.
“The harder teams are the ones we’re performing against.
“Western Sydney Wanderers for example are up the top of the table, and we’ve got seven points from nine against them.”
The odds are in Sydney’s favour against struggling Wellington, but Ernie Merrick’s side have sprung a couple of surprises of late, including a 2-1 defeat of Melbourne City a fortnight ago and last month’s outrageous 5-2 demolition job of Western Sydney.
If the Sky Blues win, it will mark their first triumph against a team outside NSW this campaign.
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